Re: [microsound] Re: being 'political' in non-verbal music

[graham miller <grahammiller@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> You can consider it to be apolitical, or you can
> consider it to be very political in the sense that it
> actively champions the current political and economic
> structures that control much of what goes on (here in
> America). To listen to most radio in America, you?ve
> already been politicized into accepting commercials, a
> limited sense of intellectual inquiry, corporate
> control over just about everything, etc.

absolutely true. i was just being political by calling it apolitical:)

>
>
> Something that greatly concerns me as an electronic
> musician is that my thoughts may be progressive in
> some sense, but my actions actively support the status
> quo through purchasing equipment, supplies and
> services.

oh no... i see where you are going here...


> When I turn on the radio in my car, no
> matter what radio station I tune into, I am still
> powering the radio from gas from Texaco or whatever.
> When I am cutting up sounds in Amadeus II or Pro
> Tools, I am not just challenging people?s conception
> of sound (or whatever), but I am supporting Apple
> computers and the economic chain of overseas labor
> which is invisible to me, the steady destruction of
> the environment.

the alternative is not make art and live on a desert island where nobody
is ever going to hear from you and you'll zero chance of changing the
world.

subverting consumer goods and using them against themselves has always
been the spirit of electronic music...

look at the turntable... transformed from a product for passive
consumption into an instrument for creative production...

computers are no different.  you can use them for autodial telemarketing
or you can boot boot up MAX/MSP...

if you want to start a 'fair trade' computer company up that adhere to
all the ethics and morality by which you stand, by all means, do it...
i''ll buy one. but it just means you'll be doing that for the next
thirty years and not making art.

time is against us. act now. this is limited time opportunity. the
revolutionaries are standing by.



> in particular; the parts used in any computer are
> probably made with cheap labor and probably not made
> with environmental protection in mind.
>
> Music does not just have a surface political meaning,
> but the very existence and consumption of music
> implies the political and economic (is there really a
> difference?) structures the music lives in. This is
> what I got out of Attail?s book, which otherwise I
> found to be not very rigorous and not too useful.
>
> I don?t think the question is how can wordless music
> have a political meaning, but how can music made that
> is so entrenched in the current economic worldview
> effectively question that worldview.

i don't see capitalism in itself as particularly a problem. what it's
become is the problem. i could never engineer the tools i use to make
art, to write, to make films, music, communicate, myself. i appreciate
the ingenuity of others... i guess what i'm saying is that i'm more in
favour of what alvin toffler calls the 'prosumer' in his 'the third
wave' book (which i highly recommend). i don't distinguish between
consumption and production. the best kind of person on earth gives back
as much as he takes. and that giving back does not necessarily entail
merely money. it can be art. it can be time. it can be this e-mail.

g.

>
>
> -Josh Ronsen
> in Austin, Texas
>
>
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